Daines voted for debt

Created on Thursday, 22 May 2014 23:01Published on Thursday, 22 May 2014 23:01

Rep. Steve Daines, through his Washington, D.C., attorney Charles R. Spies, has complained about an ad we [Montanans for Limited Government] are running supporting Champ Edmunds for U.S. Senate. In the ad, we state that Steve Daines voted four times to raise the debt ceiling. Mr. Daines claims he only voted to raise the debt ceiling two times.

We reviewed Rep. Daines’ votes on the Heritage Scorecard, Freedomworks and VoteSmart. On Jan. 23, 2013, less than one month after he took office, Rep. Daines voted for HR 325, which suspended the debt limit for five months. On May 9, 2013, he voted for HR 807, which authorized spending in excess of the debt ceiling to pay interest on government debt. Then on Oct. 16, 2013, he voted for HR 2775, which reopened the government, and suspended the debt ceiling until February 2014.

The letter also claims that we falsely state that Rep. Daines voted to fund Obamacare. It points out that he voted to repeal Obamacare, which is true, and is commendable. However, when given the opportunity to prevent the funding of that program, he chose to vote in favor of HR 2775, which not only re-opened the government after the shutdown in October 2013, but fully funded Obamacare.

We are sorry that pointing out Rep. Daines’ actions makes him uncomfortable. However, we believe that, based upon Rep. Daines’ voting record, not his rhetoric, Champ Edmunds is the conservative choice to represent Montana in the U.S. Senate.